One in five new drivers have an accident in their first year – and 3,000 get BANNED

Young drivers may not have the best reputation when it comes to being safe on our roads. But the findings of a recent study explain why these new drivers are so much more of a risk to insure

By Dan Elsom

15th November 2017, 1:04 pm

Updated: 16th November 2017, 2:17 pm

AS many as one in five drivers will be involved in a car accident within their first 12 months of driving, new research has found.

It estimated that an alarming 170,076 new drivers had been involved in an accident in the UK between April 2016 and March 2017.

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22 per cent of young drivers will be involved in an accident in their first 12 months of driving

Conducted by GAP insurance broker ALA, the survey found that 22 per cent of new drivers were in a collision in that period, and gathered their estimate from the 815,168 drivers that passed their practical test during the same time frame.

More than half of those new drivers involved in an accident had incurred an expense related to their own or someone else's vehicle - and 10 per cent incurred costs exceeding £1,000.

In an attempt to explain what other factors aside from collisions were contributing to higher insurance premiums for young drivers, the research also looked into the rate of drivers committing offences during their first 12 months on the road.

Worryingly, it found that a whopping 18,038 young motorists incurred points on their licence, while 3,184 were banned from driving less than a year after being legally permitted to drive alone.

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The majority of new drivers to be banned in their first year were male

Of this group of banned drivers, an overwhelming 87 per cent were male, while males also committed 77 per cent of the offences which resulted in penalty points being awarded.

Simon England, Managing Director at ALA, commented on the findings:
“With the cost of insurance premiums constantly rising for younger drivers, we thought it would be interesting to find out how many new drivers are involved in road accidents and how many are committing offences in their first 12 months on the roads.

“We were surprised to find that one in five new drivers are involved in at least one accident within the first 12 months, suggesting that experience really does count when you are out on the road.

“Damages to cars can be very expensive, especially on newer models, so it doesn’t take much for these damages to add up.

"Insurance for young drivers is already very expensive so the last thing you need is a claim on your policy which will bump this up even more.”